3 Thoughts
- My first initial, and overall, thought came after reading Dunlap and Lowenthal (2018) citing the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education, which had me questioning if there was a key principle missing. I firmly believe in Merrill’s (2002) assertion that all learning should be problem-centred because people learn best when engaged in solving problems that are relevant to them. However, I then thought that it is possible that all the theory around learning, especially online learning, as we try to incorporate and relate facilitation practices to theory, clouds us from finding new effective practices; because when so focussed on theory, it can stop facilitators from doing what naturally feels right.
- Another central thought that came to me was based off of Boettcher’s (n.d.) idea that a key practice for teaching online is that feedback should be sought from students by facilitators early on in the learning experience in order to make adjustments. While I am in total agreement, I do also believe that whenever feedback is sought, it should be almost immediately acted upon and if facilitators cannot act on it, then detailed explanations should be provided as to why this is the case or else there is a risk of eroding trust.
- My final thought for this post is based off Boettcher’s (n.d.) final practice regarding the wrap-up for the course and essentially creating a to-do list to mentally help learners and alleviate stress. I have found through my own experience in the MALAT program that this would be helpful from the start. In fact, one takeaway for me will be to create downloadable schedules with a column for students to use to track completion.
2 Questions
- The first question that came to me when reading Bull’s (2013) article was, is facilitating effective online learning really that different than from facilitating in-person? And if so, how?
- Another question I had was, does a synchronous session to kick off a course help to immediately establish the teaching presence and social presence required for a successful community of inquiry (CoI)?
1 Metaphor
The diagram below sums up my overall initial, lasting thought. This is a thought that I do not know if I will get clarity to by the end of this course, but hopefully more so by the end of my MALAT journey.
Photo courtesy of: https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/c/classrom_management.asp
References
Boettcher, J.V. (n.d.). Ten best practices for teaching online. Designing for Learning. http://designingforlearning.info/writing/ten-best-practices-for-teaching-online/
Bull, B. (2013, June 3). Eight roles of an effective online teacher. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/eight-roles-of-an-effective-online-teacher/
Dunlap, J.C., Lowenthal, P.R. (2018). Online educators’ recommendation for teaching online: Crowdsourcing in action. Open Praxis, 10(1), 79-89. DOI: 10.5944/openpraxis.10.1.721
Merrill, M. D. (2002, September). First principles of instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 50(3), 43-59. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02505024
08/26/2023 at 8:32 am
Hi Rebecca,
Great post that stimulated a lot of thoughts for me too. I love your idea of creating a downloadable schedule with checkboxes to complete as you move through the MALAT program. I have created my own mental map but I think your idea would be effective, especially for task-oriented people. Your question about whether digital facilitation is really that different from in-person made me stop and think about this. I firmly believe it is not, but I had to organize my thoughts and think about the ‘why’ behind the question. When considering the Community of Inquiry model as described in the Dunlap and Lowenthal (2018) article, I think the theory is kind of the same in that both would require a careful balance between social, cognitive, and teaching presence for an effective learning experience but I think the strategies for developing each presence is different depending on the environment. What are your thoughts?
Thanks again for a very thought-provoking post!
Leah
09/12/2023 at 6:06 pm
Hi Leah,
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I took a while to respond as I wanted to do some more readings and go deeper into the course to try to clarify my own thoughts. I really do not believe that digital facilitation is that different from in-person facilitation. I think most of the same principles apply, especially when looking at the COI framework and the need to establish the various presences. The only difference I really see is the medium/tools that a facilitator might use in order to achieve their strategies in establishing a teaching, social and/or cognitive presence.
09/15/2023 at 5:31 am
Thanks for your reply, Rebecca. I can totally see where you are coming from, and I agree that both methods of facilitation are trying to achieve the same thing. However, strategies for facilitation are different, at least from my perspective, when trying to move away from an instructivist approach. In some professional learning sessions I have facilitated in person, we have done a lot of experiential learning with hands-on activities that would be considered a real-life experience of what they were learning about. I simply cannot do that in a digital learning environment. I have to consider other strategies to help them learn the same thing, which is very challenging. I do think this debate is highly contextual though. We are both seeing this through our own experiences with facilitation, and I think we are both right, depending on the circumstance and the specific learning outcomes related to the course/session.